There are almost 18,000 listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan.

That is more than the rest of the world put together and six times more than are quoted on the UK market.

Most of these Asian businesses are small and unknown by big international investors. But many of them are growing fast and offer generous yields as well.

Fidelity Asian Values, an investment trust, aims to find some of the most promising firms among those 18,000, invest in them and deliver annual returns of more than 10 per cent.

Diversity: The fund’s mixed investments range from a Bollywood studio to a semi-conductor maker

The shares are 387p and have performed well in recent months, but they should continue to increase in price over the coming few years.

Fidelity Asian Values is run by Nitin Bajaj, a Singapore-based investment expert with a track record of success and straightforward views on how best to pick stocks that are going to generate the highest returns.

The fund invests in a broad mix of about 160 companies, which range in size from £25 million to £20 billion, though most are at the smaller end.

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In each case, Bajaj looks for businesses which he believes can deliver a 50 per cent return over three years, from a blend of dividends and share price growth.

Finding these companies is not easy, but Bajaj has certain rules that he sticks to rigidly.

First, they need to be good businesses that are growing fast. Second, they need to be run by people he trusts. And third, they need to be undervalued on the stock market.

The formula sounds simple and logical – and it works.

Bajaj began managing the fund in April 2015, since when the combined value of the companies in the portfolio has surged and the trust's share price has doubled.

Bajaj also invests only in businesses that he really understands, operating in sectors that are likely to benefit from long-term growth.

One investment, for example, is Lion Brewery Ceylon, which brews and markets beer in Sri Lanka, including Carlsberg.

More than 80 per cent of the beer consumed in Sri Lanka is Carlsberg, but current consumption is very low as the country was ravaged by a protracted civil war and is still recovering from decades of violence and economic hardship.

As Sri Lankans become more prosperous, Bajaj expects beer consumption to increase and Lion Brewery shares to rise.

Other investments include BFI, a commercial vehicle finance firm in Indonesia, whose share price was extremely cheap at the time of investment, even though the business was growing at 8 to 12 per cent a year and offering a dividend yield of 9 per cent.

The trust owns shares in a Bollywood studio in Mumbai, a tutoring business in China, a semi-conductor firm in Taiwan and the operator of the national electricity grid in India.

Fidelity Asian Values' remit even extends to Australia and New Zealand, so it has invested in an Australian child care group and has shares in a couple of fast-growing firms in New Zealand, too.

Bajaj describes himself as a contrarian investor so he tends to look at countries and sectors that are out of favour with mainstream stock pickers.

He was very interested in India at the turn of the century, when few others were.

Recently, he has been finding attractive opportunities in Korea, a country riven by political and corporate scandals.

Bajaj works with a team of four, all of whom travel extensively through Asia and Australasia, looking for potential investments.

The group also benefits because Fidelity is a global investment firm, employing thousands of people worldwide, so local experts can feed into Bajaj's research.

Some decisions are made in a few weeks, others take several years. In each case, however, Bajaj is ruthlessly focused on delivering growth and making money for investors.

Midas verdict: Fidelity Asian Values' manager, Nitin Bajaj, believes that he should treat every investment decision as if it involved his own money, a position made that much easier as he owns a significant number of shares in the fund.

His approach has delivered impressive results over the past two years, but there is plenty of growth to come.